Band Standing
by Jougetsu
Summary: Spring is in full swing as Watanuki receives love notes in English, the school festival theme is oh so retro, Yuuko is amused, and Mokona wants to host a mixer.


**Fandom:** Xxxholic**  
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**Title: **Band Standing**  
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**Author: **Lannie aka Jougetsu

**Pairing/Characters: **DoumekixWatanuki**  
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**Disclaimer: **Never owned 'em, never will. No profit is being made.**  
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**Challenges: **For the Deep Connection challenges: song fiction challenge, and the monthly theme of unexpected kisses.

**Summary: **Spring is in full swing as Watanuki receives love notes in English, the school festival theme is oh-so-retro, Yuuko is amused, and Mokona wants to host a mixer.

**Futher Notes: ** Had this sitting in my hard drive since spring and after much debate decided to finally post it even though it's kind of frivolous. I'm still working on the "Waiting" sequel(s), in fact the next part is giving me much trouble because no matter how I write it out it seems lame. Therefore, silly things like this that I've been scribbling are being posted while I edit and rewrite the sequel to "Waiting." Please enjoy!

_Italics _indicate song lyrics written or sung.

xXxXxXx

Until that morning, Watanuki would have considered himself to be the last person to have a secret admirer. And yet, tucked in his school slippers, rolled into a tiny scroll was a love note. Or at least he assumed it was a sort of love note. The problem was that the note was in English, so here he was at lunchtime asking the new substitute English teacher what the message really was. She was young and pretty and went out of her way to be friendly with the students. Even though her full name was Julie Sheraden-Tanaka, she insisted they call her "Miss Julie."

_maybe I'm a fool to feel the way I do_

_but I would play the fool forever _

_just to be with you forever_

"Well, it looks you may have a secret admirer Watanuki."

Ms Julie smiled and handed him back the note.

"You don't understand," he explained. "I never get any chocolate on Valentine's Day, I'm not popular!"

"It could be someone new," Julie pointed out. "Or maybe they're shy and would rather confess to you through notes."

Watanuki was fairly certain that whomever was leaving notes (with lyrics to English love songs no less!) in his shoe cubby was probably not Himawari.

"It would probably be easier to just tell me," he grumbled. The fact that he had to go to Ms Julie to double-check his own translation and get cultural context implied an above average grasp of the language on the part of the writer. He knew for a fact Himawari's best subject was not English.

It was Classics, so there!

"Well, do you think it's easy to confess your feelings to someone you care about?" Julie countered. "There are very few of us who can face open rejection."

"They probably got the wrong locker."

"Oh Watanuki, you do so underestimate your charm!"

xXxXxXx

"Oh Watanuki, you underestimate your charm!" chuckled Yuuko. "How romantic it must be to have a secret admirer!"

"Ms Julie said the same thing, you're both crazy."

"Secret admirer! Secret admirer!" sang the twins.

"It just better not be a spirit, I mean Zashiki Warashi was nice and all but..."

"I have a feeling this admirer is human," his boss declared. "Can I see the note?"

"Here," he fished it out of his pocket. "Keep it."

"Aww, don't you want to keep one of your first love tokens?"

"I'm telling you it probably wasn't mean for me."

Yuuko traced a finger over the words and grinned. The strength of feeling, the forceful personality behind the writing, she had a pretty good idea of the author's identity.

"Trust me, Watanuki, this person intended the message for you. Now, where's my cabernet?"

"You lush, you haven't even had a snack yet!"

"Snacks, snacks! Make us snacks!"

xXxXxXx

_maybe it's intuition_

_some things you _

_just don't question_

_like in your eyes_

_I see my future in an instant_

_and there it goes_

_I think I found my best friend_

"What's that Watanuki?"

"Agh! Himawari!"

Apparently, Himawari was sneakier than he gave her credit for or Doumeki was right and he was oblivious. He wasn't sure which one he wanted to be true.

The fact of the matter was that Watanuki had been patiently waiting at their regular lunch spot, and when he realized Himawari, and that bastard Doumeki, were late he had decided to reread that morning's note. It didn't seem as blatantly romantic as the first, but his English wasn't the best. Plus he was too embarrassed to ask Ms Julie for translation help again. Sure she was friendly, but it was just weird. A boy asking his teacher help deciphering a love note, it was like a bad hentai manga for crying out loud!

Not that he'd read too many of those, you know. But he had no choice in the matter when his boss wanted him to reorganize her library. Suffice to say that Yuuko's reading material ran the gamut from the sacred to the profane (like really profane), high culture to low culture (pretty low actually).

He was still trying to erase the memory of her yaoi manga and novel stash. Women were way too interested in boys having sex. Just look at the fangirls in his class. Good thing Himawari wasn't like that! He hoped, he prayed she wasn't like that.

"Where'd you get that?" the girl asked cheerfully.

"Um, it was in my cubby this morning," he explained. "I'm not really sure why."

Himawari stared at the paper for a few minutes, silently mouthing the words.

"Oh! I think I recognize it!"

"Really? From where?"

"I remember it from when we went to the karaoke bar last week!"

"You went to karaoke? I bet you were really cute!"

"It's too bad you had to go to work. Doumeki and half our class came along. Even Ms Julie went with us! But yeah, this looks like one of the love songs."

"Love songs?"

"Yup! It was really popular a couple years ago and so romantic! Wow, you must have a secret admirer, Watanuki!"

"You think so? I mean me have an admirer?"

"Why not?" her eyes twinkled.

"I'm not really the type, Doumeki's more likely to get these kind of notes."

"Oh, I forgot to tell you! Doumeki is at the class reps' meeting, that's why he couldn't come to lunch."

He couldn't think of a polite way to tell Himawari he could care less where that idiot was, so he said nothing.

"They're brainstorming themes for this year's school festival, isn't that neat?"

"What do you think the theme should be, Himawari?"

"Well," she grinned. "I heard them talking about possibly having a retro themed festival. I think that would be totally cool."

"You have such great taste, Himawari!"

xXxXxXx

That afternoon the vote went up and Watanuki put in his bid for the retro theme. He even tried not to care that Doumeki seemed to like the theme as well. Apparently it was quite popular and won the vote.

"So it's decided," announced Doumeki. "The school festival theme will be the 1920s. Any suggestions for the class activity?"

"Why don't we host a swing jazz dance? The school band can play live music and we can have someone sing," suggested a girl named Tokiko.

"That's great!" beamed Himawari. "We can even have an instructor teach us swing dance steps! It'll be so much fun and the public will love it, too!"

"All in favor? No objections? Swing jazz, it is," Doumeki proclaimed. "Meeting adjourned."

xXxXxXx

"Swing dancing, eh?" Yuuko downed another cup of sake.

"Doesn't Himawari have the best ideas?" Watanuki gushed. "It'll be a lot of work, but it'll be worth it. We're going to have singing and band auditions next week. Then we have to decide on the program and have rehearsals and make fliers and posters..."

"Those were good days before the war," the witch reminisced. "Everyone was looking forward to future and living up every moment. Damn good drinks, too. You should have a bar, too."

"Mokona would bartend!"

"You can't bartend, you're practically a stuffed animal. You don't even pour your own drinks here," the boy countered.

"Mokona wants a mixer!"

"What a good idea, Mokona!" Yuuko hugged her strange friend. "We should have a mixer with all our good friends."

Watanuki contemplated the store filled with drunk supernaturals and blanched.

xXxXxXx

_I know that it that_

_might sound more_

_Than a little crazy_

_But I believe_

_I knew I loved you_

_Before I met you_

_I think I dreamed _

_You into life_

"First love is a beautiful thing isn't it?" Julie said over his shoulder. "You're never quite as passionate as with your first true love."

Watanuki closed his eyes, regretting that he had chose to read his new note in public.

"Ms Julie, we have to work on the program planning," he replied.

"We can't do anything until the set up is done," she smiled. "So why don't you tell me about it?"

Unfortunately, she had a point. The students were still setting up the music and stands for the band members. The band themselves were tuning instruments and the student conductor was talking to Doumeki. If you could call that talking, Watanuki thought it was flirting. One-sided of course, far be it above that bastard to show any emotion over than arrogance. Himawari had a clipboard in hand and was organizing the auditioning acts.

"There's nothing to tell," answered Watanuki. "Every few days I get a new note with English lyrics."

"Yes, but how do you feel about them?" Julie deftly took the note from his hands and read it. "Oh, I love this song."

"Nothing, it's kind of annoying."

"Maybe just a bit anxious?"

"No! Why would I be anxious? Other than the fact someone is putting junk in my cubby."

"It's not junk!" came the indignant reply. "It's someone's feelings!

"Ms Julie?"

"Sorry, I just get passionate about unrequited love," the young woman blushed.

"Places everyone," Doumeki raised his voice. "Band members in your seats, auditioning acts in your spots, everyone else at your group's table."

"Who does he think he is bossing everyone around like that?" the boy muttered.

"Well, he was voted class representative, Watanuki."

"Don't remind me."

xXxXxXx

"Ms Julie sounds like an interesting woman," the time-space witch remarked that evening. She loomed over Watanuki, who was scrubbing the floor on his hands and knees.

"She's half Japanese, half American," Watanuki racked his brain for what he could remember. "I think she lived in America until middle school, then her family moved back here."

"Ahh, the life of a half-breed," sighed Yuuko dramatically. "It's never easy being both two things and neither."

"I think Ms Julie has been the one sending me notes."

"What makes you think that?"

"Well, they started appearing a week after she started teaching my class. She obviously knows English really well and it would be a problem for her to openly confess to a student. Plus the lyrics are from songs they sang at the karaoke bar, that's what Himawari tells me."

"Older women just can't help but be attracted to our Watanuki!"

"Don't mock me!" he growled. "She's been acting really, really friendly with me and saying things that make me think it's her."

"Do you want it to be her?"

"Of course not! I would want it to be Himawari!"

"Of course it could be neither of them."

"I really don't see how it can be anyone other than Ms Julie."

"Then let's celebrate your half-American love with a good Californian wine!"

"We don't have any."

"I know, so go out and buy some! Oh and French champagne, too!"

xXxXxXx

_There's just no rhyme or reason  
Only this sense of completion  
And in your eyes  
I see the missing pieces  
I'm searching for  
I think I've found my way home_

Thursday's dress rehearsal brought, literally, ill tidings.

"What do you mean our lead act is sick?" Watanuki cried. "Our festival will be ruined! We only have a week left!"

"Isn't it terrible?" Himawari agreed. "Poor Kawazawa getting mono just before the festival is a tragedy. He could be bedridden for months!"

"We're not changing the theme, the show will go on," pronounced Tokiko. "We can give the girls' group a few more songs and use one of the boys from the final auditions."

"Yeah, but most of them were really bad," added Hiroshi, adjusting his glasses. "The girls might have to carry the show."

"Oh, I think we have a good replacement on call," Ms Julie said smiling.

"Who?"

"Doumeki, of course."

"That's right, he was pretty good at singing in English when we went to karaoke!" Himawari exclaimed.

"He didn't originally audition," began Hiroshi. "But if he gives a sample performance today we might be able to salvage the show."

"I'll go ask him now," Tokiko glanced over where Doumeki was talking with the conductor.

"How does he know to sing English?" demanded Watanuki. Wasn't there anything that jerk couldn't do?

"He said his grandmother has been listening to English love songs since she was a little girl," supplied Himawari. "She would play them when he was little to teach him some English. What a lucky coincidence!"

"Coincidence! It's just another chance for him to show off," he grumbled. Really wasn't there anyone else in their class that could passably sing English?

Tokiko came back grinning, "He says he'll do it since it's an emergency."

"So why isn't he onstage?"

"Well, he's the same size as Kawazawa, so we're putting him in the tuxedo we were going to use for Kawazawa. He'll look so dashing, just like out of the movies!" Tokiko clasped her hands in delight. "He even knows most of the program songs so the band doesn't have to learn anything new."

"We're ready, Tokiko," a girl interrupted them. Just give the band the cue."

"Places everyone!" Tokiko cried. "Start the music! Jack Lawrence's 'Beyond the Sea'"

The piano and drums started up, joined by the horns in a pleasant tune that was familiar. After a few beats, Doumeki emerged from behind the stage curtain and approached the microphone almost hesitantly.

"_Somewhere beyond the sea,_"he began in a steady baritone. "_Somewhere waitin' for me. My lover stands on golden sands. And watches the ships that go sailin'._"

By this time the archer's hesitancy seemed to have melted. Doumeki was smiling (and yet not smirking) as he sang and even swaying a bit to the music.

_"Somewhere beyond the sea. He's there watchin' for me,"_ crooned Doumeki. "_If I could fly like birds on high. Then straight to his arms I'd go sailin'."_

Crooning? Crooning! That bastard had no business crooning and swaying like a pro. And was it just him or did Doumeki use masculine pronouns?

He was good, too good. The bastard showed a wider range of emotions singing than he'd ever displayed in school. Everyone was entranced. The normally stoic young man even danced a few steps during the instrumental passages. And at the song's end he gave a cheeky salute and blew a kiss at Watanuki. Or at least Watanuki was pretty sure it was at him. Himawari was standing on the other side of room and though Ms Julie was next to him, Doumeki never gave the teacher the time of day. Clearly, the bastard just wanted to humiliate him.

He received a standing ovation.

"That was better than Kawazawa ever was!" Himawari exclaimed.

"I'll second that," added Hiroshi.

"You didn't sing this well at karaoke," Ms Julie commented.

"You should be in band," suggested Tokiko.

"I only love to sing for the ones I love," the archer said cryptically. "Otherwise it's meaningless."

xXxXxXx

_I'll be your dream, _

_I'll be your wish,_

_I'll be your fantasy_

_I'll be your hope_

_I'll be your love_

_Be everything that you need_

"What I need," Watanuki told the scrap of paper, "is answers."

Unsurprisingly, the paper did not answer back.

He shut his eyes, tilted his head back and wondered. Other than removing his ability to see spirits, what were his wishes and dreams? What did he want out of life, out of love? In his mind's eye, he saw his parents laughing and in love. He wanted what they had, that sweet love and companionship.

"That'll never happen," whispered Watanuki. "Whoever you are, if you can't make my dream come true then it's not worth it."

"Hey."

Great, here came the new school diva.

"My name isn't 'Hey', you jerk. What are you doing here so early? You're not on classroom duty today."

"Had to get in early archery practice, the rehearsals cut into afternoon practice."

"Oh," Watanuki paused. That made sense actually. "Well that doesn't mean you should go around sneaking up on people!"

"You were talking to yourself too loudly to hear me come in."

His heart pounded wildly in his chest, he couldn't have overheard him! Because if he did, that was enough emotional blackmail to be serving the bastard homemade meals the rest of his life.

"What did you hear?"

"I don't listen to idiot's chatter."

He was too relieved to respond to the insult and fled to do the homeroom chores.

_To be continued…_

xXxXxXx

**Author's Notes:**

**Mystery lyrics (in order of appearance)**

_maybe I'm a fool to feel the way I do_

_but I would play the fool forever _

_just to be with you forever_

I Believe in You and Me Whitney Houston

Preacher's Wife OST

_maybe it's intuition...I think I found my best friend_

and

_I know that it ...You into life_

and

_There's just no rhyme or reason...I think I've found my way home_

I Knew I Loved You Save Garden

I Knew I Loved You Album

_Somewhere beyond the sea..._

Beyond the Sea Charles Trenet & Jack Lawrence

**Classics**

Classics refers to classical Japanese language, literature, and culture. It's a standard class for most high school students and can be quite difficult as classical Japanese is much different than modern Japanese. Because Himawari is very much interested in magic and ghosts, it's not too much of a stretch to think she might favor Classics class. Most of the earliest ghost stories and folk tales of supernatural happenings occur in classical Japanese literature.

**Bandstand**

From **bandstand** is a circular or semicircular structure set in a park, garden or pier, designed to accommodate musical bands performing outdoor concerts. Many bandstands in the United Kingdom originated in the Victorian era. The function of the bandstand inspired the name of the 1950s United States television show "American Bandstand."

**Lannie's Note on Bandstands**

Bandstands are quite famous for their swing and jazz melodies starting in the 1920s through the 1950s in the US and Europe. Many of these performances were broadcasted over the radio and were the pop music of the day. Especially well known are the bandstand USO performances of the WWII era. I grew up on these tunes thanks to my dad's record collection and was happy to see its revival in the late '90s. Famous band standers and swingers include Glenn Miller and his orchestra, Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, and many many others. Unlike today where we associate a song with a particular artist, many of these songs were written by professional songwriters. Called "standards" these songs were played in many different places and recorded by many different artists. Very few songs were written by performers themselves.

**School Festivals**

Anyone who's read a lot of manga or watched a lot of anime is probably familiar with school festivals, but I'll explain anyway. In the spring, many Japanese schools put together cultural festivals. They usually last several days and for at least one day are open to the public and other schools. Each class comes up with a theme and an activity, clubs and teams usually showcase their talents sometimes with interschool competitions. Some of the festivals can get quite elaborate! Many of them double as school fundraisers.

**1920s Japan**

From the late 1800s into the 1930s, Japan had a love affair with the West. People abandoned traditional education, manners, and dress, in favor of Western styles. It wasn't until the 1930s that fascism and nationalism gripped the country. While some of the songs used are here are 1920s and others are post-1920s, some of these songs wouldn't have heard in Japan until the 1950s. Like in the US, the 1920s in Japan was a lively progressive time. While many intellectuals despaired that Japan was giving away its soul and that the populace would never again appreciate traditional values, the conservative backlash hit a decade later.

**American & Western Music in Japan**

American and Western Music is quite popular in Japan. In a typical music store, I would say that Western music takes up at least a third if not half the store, the rest being Japanese music. While of course the chart toppers of America get at least one CD out in Asia, even less popular groups can be found there as well. Even I was a bit surprised at how extensive the repertoire was. This being said, most karaoke bars do not have a lot of Western songs. There are more than a few, but nothing that extensive. Of course, in some places there are bars that carry a lot more and more variety of Western songs but it depends on the area. So yes it's a bit of a stretch to have Savage Garden in a Japanese karaoke bar, but if they did have any of their songs it would be their most popular hits.


End file.
